Free Will Is Our Nature
by misguidedghost77
Summary: A collection of completely unrelated oneshots and drabbles that have been sitting in my folder for far too long. The title makes reference to Team Free Will, because Dean, Sam and Cas are the only ones I usually write about. Will probably contain Destiel. Rated T for light swearing.


_**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Supernatural._

_**Author's Note:** So hey! Welcome and thanks for dropping by. This is merely going to be a collection of drafts and one-shots I've been writing over two years. Truth is, I almost lost all my stories when my hard drive crashed a few weeks ago, so tonight I decided in a whim to go and post the drafts that are at least decent. I want to clarify that none of these "stories" are going to be continued, except if somehow the stars align, I miraculously get time and peace out of nowhere and my muse returns from wherever they've been hiding for two years. So, unfortunately, these are mostly plot bunnies and ideas I've had. You're welcome to contact me if you like some and want to write them yourself, too. Like I said, this is a rash decision I made -which I may regret at some point, even though there was no alcohol involved- to share some of the stuff that's been sitting on my folder for ages. Why, you ask? Frankly, no idea. _

_Each mini story will have its corresponding description, and I apologize in advance because none of these have been carefully thought out. It's just me getting rid of my extreme supernatural feels by writing crap, as usual. I also have a FMA:B crossover story somewhere around there but if I ever decide to put that one up it's going to be in a separate story. But that story is really really underdeveloped and... god Lett stop blabbering. Don't mind me. Sorry._

_I decided to start with this one because it's one of the first, and chronologically speaking, it's the oldest. I would be lying if I said I didn't hope you like it. I do, but shh!_

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**Story Title:** _**Two Worlds, One Family**_ (haha the title was inspired by the Tarzan soundtrack song)

**Characters/Ships:** Castiel

**Description:** Castiel is a soldier of Heaven, stationed on Earth. He has trained extensively for battle, but he has been idle for centuries now, with no orders, and doubt begins to eat at his mind. Until Heaven calls, with the strangest assignment: Rescue a human soul from Hell.

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The woman was slightly baffled. No matter how much she talked to her baby girl, and pointed at things through the window, the toddler wouldn't stop giggling at the empty seat of the bus. Her big brown eyes were fixated on that seat, but not on the seat itself. She was looking at something at eye level, almost as if there was somebody there. And the woman had never seen her daughter more delighted at something – it was way into the third half hour and she hadn't fallen asleep or gotten upset. And considering Lily had a tendency for crying and fiddling of boredom after the first fifteen minutes of the daily commute, her mother was starting to get worried. She touched the baby's forehead, but it wasn't warm. The other passengers of the bus seemed equally surprised – most of them were usuals, and since Lily and her mom had been taking that bus for two months now, they all knew how annoying the little girl could get. The woman realized this was definitely something when the teenager with the black clothes and bubblegum pink, spiky hair took off her headphones to stare at Lily. Just as the rest of the passengers, she turned to look at the empty seat, trying to see if there was something that could have caught the baby's attention, but then she exchanged a puzzled look with the man of the overcoat and the newspaper that usually sat next to her. Lily, completely unaware of the attention she was suddenly getting, kept grinning at the empty seat. If her mother had known that the seat wasn't actually empty, she might have been quite concerned.

The man in the trenchcoat stared curiously at the baby girl, without smiling. He wished he could find out what the toddler was thinking, or feeling. But Castiel was so used to ignoring his urge to know that he didn't find it hard to suppress the feeling anymore. He looked away from those large brown eyes and noticed that the passengers of the whole bus were staring at him now. Well, most of them. The filthy homeless guy at the bottom was too drunk to care. Even though he knew they couldn't see him, Castiel felt a tiny twinge of something itching inside. Like a warning. He ignored it for another second, still gazing into the eyes of Lily, the baby girl, but then he decided his curiosity would not be satiated by staying here, and he reminded himself he couldn't contact anyway, so he stood up, careful to avoid accidentally brushing anyone with his wings, and vanished.

Lily frowned, and her mother detected sudden disappointment in her pout, the same she did when a toy was taken from her. The woman sighed, preparing for what she knew was going to come.

Two stops later, everybody's trail of thought had returned to their daily worries, the same look of annoyance in all the passengers' faces. The bus driver put his music up to try and drown Lily's loud crying, but once again and like every day, it was useless.

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Castiel never knew what happened to Lily. Before she even understood what had happened, he was far away, in another city, in a different country, observing a couple of teenagers walking down the riverside, hand in hand, whispering secret words of love into each other's ear every ten seconds.

Castiel was an angel of the Lord, and that meant he was a soldier. As a soldier, he'd never complain about the task they had been assigned, but his patience was beginning to tire out. After five thousand years of human history, he was starting to wonder if he was ever going to receive any assignment. He was part of the garrison that was stationed on Earth, waiting, always waiting for orders. He didn't dislike being on Earth, over the centuries he had grown rather fond of observing humans, but there was always this itch inside of him, this curiosity for understanding them, getting to really know them. To read their minds and hearts, to feel what they felt. Castiel had found it difficult to restrict himself at first, especially considering that he, like all angels, needed a vessel, and it was hard not to peek into every single memory of the human he was living in, but in time all of their memories faded, and their personalities were consumed inside his light. As a result, he knew very little about humans, really, other than deducing some basic things from mere watching – men usually liked women and vice versa, but there were exceptions; humans reproduced a lot, and loved and tended to their children… usually; they had to do this thing called "work"; they were emotional creatures, but then they could also worry themselves to death over material things, etc – which normally only confused Castiel more.

Of course, he had no experience with that kind of life, since angels were very different. They did not feel emotions. They had a unique characteristic that singled them out: Each angel had a human quality, but only one. When Castiel was young, he and the other angels of his garrison had to discover which was their quality. Castiel's was curiosity. Anna Milton, his former superior, had compassion. Balthazar had confidence.

But if an angel interacted with a human for long enough, they started to acquire human characteristics and emotions. In time, they could become almost human, the only difference being that they would be much more powerful than an ordinary human, and every angel knew this was dangerous. Only the four archangels were allowed to interact with humans as much as they wanted –the archangels had the same emotion range than humans did. Castiel had never questioned why God had created them like that. It was the way things were. And it was not his place as a soldier to question his superiors.

Nevertheless, he had learnt enough about humans to understand they were dooming themselves. The amount of suffering, pain, death, disease, poverty had increased dramatically in the last two centuries or so, and in his opinion, it was threatening to get even worse than the Middle Ages. So he had begun to wonder why God let this happen, why Castiel's garrison was still idle, why he didn't receive orders to… do something. But these questions were buried deep inside of him, and he wouldn't talk of them to anyone. It would be hard to say if he was even conscious he was harboring doubts.

Time meant little for an angel billions of years old. People died and were born and the sun went up and down and Castiel barely registered any of it, to the point that he was still mulling over the shock it had given him, and the entire garrison, when Anna had rebelled and ripped her own grace. She wasn't the first, of course, but the last time an angel had become human had been hundreds of years ago, so it was quite the thing. Twenty years later, it was still the only thing the members of his garrison talked about when they ran into each other.

Lily, the baby girl from the bus, would likely grow up, and die of old before they found another subject to discuss.

That was why the urgent summon from Heaven came as a complete surprise to him.

He materialized instantly in the meeting point for the Earth garrison angels, and exchanged surprised looks with Uriel, Hester and Rachel, who were closest to him.

"Do you know what happened?"

The women shook their heads, but Uriel –good old funny Uriel– leaned closer and whispered.

"I am not sure, but I think the demons are up to something."

Castiel frowned. The demons were _always_ up to something, but that didn't mean it was relevant for them.

"What could they possibly be doing that has called the attention of the higher-ups?"

"I have no idea," the other angel confessed.

And then they all felt it. The pull inside, the sudden brightness, the wave of joy at being touched by a purer being, something perfect that reached down and talked to them, mere soldiers. They could all understand the idea without need for words, and the images they were presented with stuck in their memory with perfect detail.

One conscience raised from between the angels and asked a question. _When do we start?_

_Now_, was the answer given, and when Castiel opened his eyes he barely got a chance to exchange glances with his brother and sisters before they all disappeared in a rustle of wings.

By the time Castiel blinked again, they were all set. It all happened so fast that he didn't have time to marvel over the fact that they were being called to battle, that the horn had been blown. He didn't have time to dwell over his surprise. He wouldn't have wanted, anyway. They were soldiers, and this was what they had been prepared for. Their minds were set on the objective, and nothing else mattered.

They stood in line, white rays of light staring at the pit of darkness that lay beyond the Gates of Hell.

A few demons that were lingering at the Gate, probably trying to wiggle their way out to Earth, scattered away, but one or two ran inside, to issue a warning. It was useless. The angels were laying siege to Hell. A battle like nothing ever seen before was about to start, and Castiel felt only a sense of completion, of finally doing what he had been created to do.

Even so, it wasn't war, technically. It was more of a rescue mission. The orders were clear: Find the human Dean Winchester and drag him from perdition. Any demon that stood in the way would be eliminated. They had also been warned that the demons had probably hidden him as deep as Hell could get, since that human was key. Strange it seemed, that a weak, fragile little human soul would suddenly become so important to Heaven, but Castiel never questioned his orders. Orders were orders.

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_And that's as far as it goes, sorry. Although maybe someday, in the far future, I will pick this story up and develop Dean and Cas' relationship from here. I liked the idea of soldier!Cas and wanted to delve a bit into it, and explore all of his confusion in early S4, when his formation as a soldier (and Naomi poking at his brain too, probably) collided against his doubts and desire to help Dean, until it ultimately resulted in his rebellion. That was the idea for this story. But as you can see, it was never continued. Time is never on my side, friends. If I ever do decide to continue it, you'll be the first to know, though._

_This "story", meaning the general fanfic, will continue with a few more drafts and oneshots, completely unrelated. See you soon._


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